


Dare seize the fire

by Dissenter



Series: Cry havoc [7]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: F/M, Guerrilla Warfare, Historical, Implied Relationships, Mad Science, Mafia Politics, Period-Typical Sexism, Resistance, Women In Power, World War II, wartime Vongola
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 11:31:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12816588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: Daniela decides she really ought to stop underestimating Fiorella





	Dare seize the fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/gifts).



> Fiorella is back, and we find out how the Bovino got their start in terrifying physics breaking technology.

Daniela saw the mad gleam in the Bovino sesta’s eyes and decided that she really needed to stop underestimating Fiorella.

She’d been invited to the impressively fortified cave system that was the Bovino’s current base, so that Fiorella could explain her big idea. She wasn’t really sure what she’d been expecting. A new training regimen maybe, or some new recruits. She had _not_ been expecting _that._

The inner caverns were an insane alchemist’s wet dream. A terrifying mixture of the most up to date scientific equipment Fiorella and her men had been able to pilfer, and the kind of threatening old books that looked almost as though they should have been bound in human skin. Fi had decided to entirely change the famiglia’s direction, shift their focus from standard thuggery, to scientific progress. Daniela was impressed. The old guard couldn’t have been happy about that kind of change in philosophy. It must have taken real determination to force the changes through.

When Daniela had said as much Fiorella had just giggled, in the exact same way she used to giggle at parties when she heard an amusing piece of gossip. It was actually quite unsettling, and as someone with a Mist for her right hand, unsettling was not a word Dani used lightly. Fiorella had giggled, and showed her the device that her darling nephew had made.

“It _electrocutes_ people.” She confided, conspiratorially. “Easy to use, and wonderfully effective. Once I’d hit a few of them with it, my husband’s men stopped complaining about the way I do things. A few of them actually lost control of their bowels, when I shocked them.” She giggled again. “There’s nothing like the threat of public humiliation to whip arrogant men into line.”

The device did indeed look easy to use, and Daniela was forcibly reminded that of all the new Donna’s, Fiorella was the one with no combat training at all. Of course she would have needed some kind of force equaliser to help establish her authority. Where she got that equaliser was a more interesting question. Fiorella responded to Daniela’s unspoken question, and led her further into the caves, with all of a Lightning’s energetic enthusiasm.

“Come on, I’ll show you what we’ve been doing, and you can meet my dear nephew. He’s been such a help this last year. He’s the one that made my electrocuting device, so that I could take over the family, and all he wanted in return was for me to fund his research. I’d have supported him anyway of course, family is family after all, but it did make the transition so much easier.”

They had continued walking as Fiorella chattered, until they entered a smaller, but even better equipped laboratory towards the back of the caves. There was only one occupant to the room, a boy with green hair, no older than Luca and probably younger, and Daniela could feel the force of hi Lightning from across the room. If she hadn't h’d Luca she might even have been tempted, but the flavour of his flames was off, focused on knowledge rather than violence, their wills didn’t match and he wasn’t _hers,_ not the way Luca was. He didn’t even look up as they walked in, entirely focused on his work.

“Hello Aunty.” He said distractedly. “I see you’ve brought company.” Fiorella beamed.

“Indeed I have. Daniela di Vongola, meet my darling nephew Verde. He’s a _scientist.”_ And if Daniela weren’t aware of _exactly_ what Fiorella was capable of then she might actually have been conviced Fi was the airhead she pretended to be. As it was Daniella was just impressed all over again, at her fellow Boss’s ability to maintain a persona. Pretty, charming, brilliant, and able to convince anyone she pleased that she was an utter fool. Fiorella was a far more gifted mafia princess than Daniella or Tiberia had ever been, and even as boss, those skills were a force to be reckoned with.

“Greetings Vongola Ottava.” Distracted as the boy might be, he at least had reasonable manners. Daniela was growing increasingly convinced that the boy was Fiorella’s nephew, not her husband’s and that he was therefore not blood related to the Bovino. Which meant the new direction of the Bovino family was probably at least partly for his benefit, to give him a guaranteed support network for his research.

Not that Daniela was complaining. Nepotism was after all the main organising principle of mafia families, and if the prototypes Fiorella had showed her on the way in were anything to judge by, the alliance only stood to gain by the change in specialisation. Daniela _wanted_ one of those mist modified crossbows with the limitless ammunition.

After Fiorella was done showing off her nephew, and they’d conducted some preliminary negotiations for weapon supplies they both retired to bed. Daniela was offered the best guest suite, as expected. What she _didn’t_ expect, when she woke up the next morning, was to run into a half-naked Adolfo Falco on his way back from the bathroom to Fiorella’s room.

It wasn’t her finest moment. She just about managed to register that he was looking pretty good for his age under the shock of “did not see that coming” that momentarily froze her. Luckily he didn’t seem like the kind of person who noticed much of anything before his morning coffee, and she was able to slink down to breakfast unseen.

Fi didn’t even have the grace to be embarrassed about it when Dani confronted her.

“Well both of our spouses are dead, we’re at war, life is short, and I’ve always preferred older men, they tend to have more _experience_.” She said with a satisfied grin and that was about seventy percent more than Daniela had _ever_ wanted to know about Fiorella’s sex life. That would teach her for asking questions she supposed.

“Besides.” Fiorella added more seriously, “Adolfo’s been a boss for thirty years, and he’s good at it. He’s a useful resource, considering I wasn’t actually trained for all this.” True, but still pretty disturbing, Daniella wondered if Fiorella ever did anything without a whole bouquet of ulterior motives. On second thoughts though maybe she and Adolfo were a good match. _He_ always had multiple reasons for everything he did too.

In the end Daniela decided it wasn’t her business, and she didn’t care enough to make it her business. They were happy, they were getting things done, she didn’t particularly want to know the details.

**Author's Note:**

> The Bovino hideout is a lot more static than any of the other families' setups, because research requires a certain amount of stability. So instead of scattering and staying on the move, they've found a convenient cave system and dug themselves in with a whole bunch of terrifying security measures.  
> Fiorella is a bit older than Daniela, mid to late twenties most likely. Adolfo is late forties to early fifties. They are both terrifyingly ruthless manipulators and very very clever. Everyone finds them pretty intimidating. Especially Fiorella because she's so good at pretending to be an airhead that no-one ever sees it coming.
> 
> And meet ten year old Verde. He hasn't changed much. Most of the arcobaleno will show up at some point in this fic, at least the ones that were probably involved in the mafia at that age. They're all between about six and fourteen years old, Luce is the oldest at fourteen, since she's Luca's twin. I'm tempted to make Reborn the youngest just for amusement value. And yes Verde did indeed build his aunt a souped up mad science taser in exchange for research funding. At the age of ten. You know he'd do it.


End file.
